Permission marketing and customer expectations

March 22nd, 2010 § 2

Stop sign symbolizing permission

Background

This topic is something I’ve wanted to write about for a while. It’s also something I’ve seen a lot other marketers/communication people talk about. The broadness of the issue, however, came to me a few days ago when I was in town simply doing some shopping.

As I was walking from one shop to another I notice a few people who were standing in the street with papers of some kind and apparently trying to talk to people. I’m guessing they wanted people to sign a petition of some kind or donate money. The slightly off thing with this situation is that I notice how I automatically walk a long way around them as to avoid eye contact in any way. I also notice a few people doing the same thing though maybe a bit more subtle.

Why were they unsuccessful?

Because they didn’t have my permission to sell me anything. Because I knew from experience that people in the street that seeks contact usually try to steal my attention/time/money without me giving permission.

A few weeks ago there was this girl who really kept bugging me for money for some great cause. I simply said that I was already supporting a child in Egypt and that I am a student with little money to spare. She didn’t seem to get that and kept on rambling and trying to get my money. This actually made me uncomfortable. Suddenly it was almost like she was trying to guilt me into giving her money.

Now this doesn’t mean I don’t think her cause was great, I just think it’s the wrong way to go about reaching people.

The market today is a lot different from before. We are evolving from the kind of marketing where you could just shout something loud enough and people would believe it was the best to a market where customers are in charge and expects to be the one choosing a product or a service. Alternatively they seek a friends advice for what to get.

Sure, we will always be influenced by one way communication to some extent. But we are rapidly learning to look past all the bullsh*t. Word by mouth has never been easier for a marketer and at the same time never been more important. After all, you are more likely to trust your best friends advice than a tv commercial.

Adaption and filtering

Here are a few examples of how we’ve started to filter out old one way communication and interruptive marketing:

  • Changing channel upon commercial. TV commercials are interrupting and stealing our time. Even if it’s time we probably could’ve spent doing something better than watch tv, we still value it. A lot of people (like me) has already adapted to the online alternatives where I choose what I want to watch without interruptions. This is coming, stay tuned. Cabel tv is doomed to fail due to their marketing strategy. Trying to put a twitter client in a tv isn’t going to change anything. It’s when you remove the tv from the tv and replace it with the internet that the real shift will happen.
  • Banner blindness. Banners are stealing our focus. If I’m searching for information on the Gulf War I DON’T want to know how to get super abs in 3 weeks. We have already developed a blindness for these things.
  • Adding a filter to our home telephone that forbids telemarketers to call us. They are stealing or time AND trying to steal our money.

[Note: As you can see, I'm using the word "steal" a lot which might seem like a strong word to some people. As i see it in this context, stealing is trying to take something from a person without their permission. That's the whole message of this post too.]

The way it should be

One big thing that I see changing today is the value distribution method. That sounds overly more complex than it is.

This is what it used to look like:
A marketer is trying to get value (time/money/focus/attention) from a person. When the person has given value, you get value (products/services) from the company.

Now this looks fair right? Well kind of, but not really. Who honestly wants to give value before they are sure to get good value back? If they have a choice that is.

This ties back to the customers need to be able to make his own decisions. The customers can’t/don’t want to make a decision if he’s unsure if the received value will be good.

That’s why you see services like Spotify (or Rhapsody) where you can listen and choose for yourselves whether you want to buy a song.

Gary Vaynerchuk calls it the “Thank you economy”. What he is referring to is that if you put out great content consistenly you will be rewarded. This way the value flow is the opposite as the the one i described earlier:
A marketer gives value by putting out good content. A person really likes the content and decides to put value into buying the product.

You could argue that this will lead to a lot of people just using free things and never giving anything back.
Well first, you don’t have to give out all of your value for free. The important thing is that you DO put out great value so that the decision is in the hands of the customer. Secondly, yes to some extent you will see people only getting the free stuff and never giving anything back. That’s life.

One great example of marketing through putting out free value is the use of manifestos and smaller ebooks. What you do is you write a shorter text on a subject which your company is about. In the last page you describe your company and what you have to offer. You could also do it as a cliff hanger in the end, just try not to piss people off with it by ending in the middle of a sentence or something like that.

Freemium is another great way to market a service. Basically you offer a free version of the product/service and offer an upgrade for a payment, one time or monthly.

Benefits

So what are the benefits of reversing the value flow?

It’s completely non-interruptive to the customer. He made his own choice by trying out your product and will make the choice to upgrade if he sees that you have what he wants.

Great content and great products will be more likely to get word by mouth marketed naturally. If something is truly good it will spread like wild fire today. The landscape of the internet is basically built for it.

Don’t expect everything to market itself though just because you put out one decent ebook. Do it properly.

Conclusion

Consumers are in charge today. And they know it. Convincing them that you are the best isn’t enough. You have to show them.

Better content/product means a higher possibility of people spreading the word about you.

There was a lot of concepts tied to this which deserves a deeper explanation in further posts. If you would like me to elaborate on something I wrote, please leave a comment!

Cheers,
Jonas

Photo credit: James Emery

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